ON THIS DAY
May 22, 2020
MAY 22, 1972
ONe trick magician Diane Matthews cannot do is become a member of the Magic Circle. So yesterday, in protest, she performed the trick of the disappearing bra. She stripped to the waist and burnt her bra on the doorstep of the men-only Magic Circle. A Circle spokesman said yesterday: ‘ There is absolutely no chance of us changing our minds.’ Told of Diane’s bra-burning trick, Circle member David Nixon asked: ‘But did she manage to restore it afterwards?’ [They did admit women in 1991.]
MAY 22, 2000
CHeRIe BlAIR, 45, spoke yesterday about the arrival of baby leo and confessed she had forgotten how tough giving birth could be. Doctors noted it was not a Caesarean.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
BeRNIe TAUPIN, 70. The songwriter from lincolnshire has written the lyrics to most of elton John’s biggest hits, including Rocket Man and Candle In The Wind. Sir elton has described it as ‘probably the strangest relationship in pop history’ — they have never written a song in the same building. Taupin said: ‘I couldn’t live elton’s life. I would rather drill myself in the head with a nail gun than do what he does.’ lYNN BARBeR, 76. The celebrity interviewer, dubbed ‘the Demon Barber of Fleet Street’, says her idea of ‘ a hellishly boring interviewee’ is someone polite and sane. She has started interviews with: ‘What happened to your face?’, ‘Were you breastfed?’ and ‘How much do you pay your cleaner?’
BORN ON THIS DAY
SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYle (18591930). The edinburgh-born author worked as a surgeon before creating Sherlock Holmes. He is believed to have been the first Briton to write about the joy of skiing — describing it as ‘getting as near to flying as any earthbound man can’. lUCY GORDON ( 19802009). The model-turned-actress (right) from Oxford became the face of U.S. make-up giant CoverGirl as a teenager before starring in Perfume and Spider-Man 3. She was rejected for the role of Jane Birkin in Gainsbourg: A Heroic life but won the part after pleading with director Joann Sfar. She took her own life in her Paris flat aged 28 and Sfar, who had compared her to Audrey Hepburn, said: ‘The princess of our fairytale is no longer with us.’
ON May 22...
IN 1885, les Misérables author Victor Hugo died, aged 83. IN 2001, actress Jane Fonda divorced her third husband CNN founder Ted Turner.
WORD WIZARDRY
GUESS THE DEFINITION: Withers (c1535)
A) Anything badly formed or out of shape. B) In all directions. C) The ridge between the shoulder bones of a horse Answer below.
PHRASE EXPLAINED
Yellow belly: Meaning a cowardly person; coined in 1787, it’s separately a nickname for people from the lincolnshire Fens. The colour yellow has long been associated with cowardice, perhaps alluding to the way some animals roll over and act dead when they give up.
QUOTE FOR TODAY
Man is only truly great when he acts from the passions.
Benjamin Disraeli, Prime Minister (1804-81)
JOKE OF THE DAY
HOW did the guitarist leave the band?
On a sour note.
Guess The Definition answer: C